2023-2024 Cummins Sustainability Progress Report: Leading Through the Energy Transition

by Jonathan Wood, Chief Technology Officer

OUR COMMITMENT TO SUSTAINABILITY

I came to Cummins because of the opportunity to work on innovative products
that exceed customers’ expectations and lessen our impact on the environment. Three decades later, we’ve made tremendous strides on both fronts and have an exciting future ahead of us.

As Chief Technical Officer (CTO) at Cummins, I get to live out my purpose and passion every day, seeing how our engineering and environmental expertise seamlessly intersects with our commitment to sustainability. That is because the company’s approach to sustainability is grounded in our mission of “making people’s lives better by powering a more prosperous world.”

A more prosperous world goes beyond a financial component to include a world with clean and sustainable air and water, and strong, vibrant communities. 

A LEGACY OF INNOVATION WITH IMPACT

Cummins has a long history of setting ambitious sustainability goals and leading our industry in those efforts. We intend to honor and further that legacy. Our sustainability goals are put into action by PLANET 2050, our environmental sustainability strategy, which seeks to ensure we do our part to address climate change and air emissions, use natural resources in
the most sustainable way and make communities better because we are there. PLANET 2050 includes quantifiable goals for 2030 along with visionary, longer-term aspirations for 2050. We annually report progress against these 2030 goals — to reduce absolute greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from facilities and operations by 50% and reduce scope 3 absolute lifetime GHG emissions from newly sold products by 25% — as well as the other seven goals.

DECARBONIZING FOR THE FUTURE

The biggest impact we can make to meet our bold sustainability goals is by continuing to execute our product decarbonization strategy, called Destination Zero. This strategy is a customer-driven, multi- solution approach that advances engine-based solutions now while innovating for the future by developing new zero-emissions solutions for the diverse applications we serve.

Over the past several years, we have acted to increase the understanding and management of the complicated factors impacting climate-related matters while also showing meaningful outcomes that demonstrate our commitment to addressing them. Our industry is heavily impacted by external pacing factors, such as customer adoption of new technologies, stronger GHG-reducing regulations, broader availability of lower-carbon fuels and infrastructure buildout. Those factors are progressing slower than anticipated when we established the goals.

Given the impact of those highly influential pacing factors and increased growth in engine volumes, the 2023 emissions increased from the baseline. However, the company has made progress in decreasing GHG per unit from the prior year. Despite the challenges associated with slower adoption rates of lower- carbon technology solutions, we remain resolute
that our Destination Zero strategy is the right one. By continuing to advance cleaner engine-based solutions and not waiting until 2035 to go to market with fully zero-emissions solutions, we estimate a cumulative carbon reduction impact of greater than 1.4 gigatons — the equivalent of removing all trucks globally from the road for three years.

I invite you to read about our key product launches and partnerships throughout this year’s report, particularly those in our innovation story. They are evidence of our strategy in action.

TALENT, TECHNOLOGY AND TOOLS

As CTO, my team and I are ultimately responsible for tracking toward and achieving the company’s environmental goals, driven by the work our technical and environmental experts do day in and day out and realized by the collective actions of all employees. Our environmental initiatives are critical to our long- term success and the future of our planet, and it takes the right portfolio of talent, technology and tools to get there.

ASSESSING OUR PROGRESS

In the environmental section, you will see a transparent assessment of the progress we made in 2023. I want to call out a few key highlights:

• The company completed 24 onsite solar projects to increase use of renewable energy. The completed projects reduce over 14,486 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) annually. We now have
  66 global sites with solar arrays.
• We announced a memorandum of understanding with Chevron U.S.A. Inc. to leverage complementary positioning in hydrogen, natural gas and other lower- carbon fuel value chains with plans to improve access to fuel and infrastructure for customers, helping grow the availability of alternative and renewable fuels while reducing emissions.
• Through partnerships with global nonprofits, including The Nature Conservancy, Water.org and WaterAid, Cummins Water Works ended 2023 having helped more than 1.2 million people and generated approximately 6.9 billion gallons in annual water benefits since its 2021 launch. In 2023, the program's annual water benefits far surpassed the company's global water consumption of 972.3 million gallons.
• For a deeper understanding of these goals, please review the full Environment section.

Read the full 2023-2024 Cummins Sustainability Progress Report